


The Darkest Secret of Mirkwood

by starscobe67



Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - All Media Types, The Lord of the Rings (Movies), The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, F/M, Gen, Lothlórien, M/M, Mirkwood, Plot Twist, but it got dark fast, oh shit, reader has no specified gender, sorry about the dark take, this was meant to just be a fun fluff piece, with some angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-26
Updated: 2020-05-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 03:33:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22420363
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starscobe67/pseuds/starscobe67
Summary: Reader is a scribe for King Thranduil and when the previous scribe turns up, something dark is discovered.
Relationships: Thranduil (Tolkien)/Reader
Comments: 9
Kudos: 40





	1. It Should've Been an Ordinary Day

It had been at least two centuries since you began your position as scribe for Mirkwood’s King. The previous scribe had fled and no one had been able to discover why. How he’d managed to leave the Kingdom had been another mystery but it wasn’t truly your concern. You’d been sent by Lady Galadriel after she had discovered your gift for memorization. Any and every word said aloud would store itself in your mind, unable to leave. She had sent you as a sign of friendship to remind King Thranduil that he had allies. And he had much more need for your talent than the woods of Lórien did. There were always things going on about in Mirkwood, especially with the darkness in Dol Guldur spreading.

  
It was odd at first, being in a kingdom so different than your own. You missed being able to walk barefoot against the grass and fallen leaves but mostly you missed the light of Lórien. Mirkwood allowed for seeing the stars at night through the crevices in the ceilings but the palace always seemed to linger in the shade. It made for a much colder atmosphere, both physically and mentally. Still, you grew accustomed to it after a decade or so and the King himself promised you that at your half millennium mark you could visit Lothlórien again. While that visit was three centuries away, you remained excited. You had been doing an excellent job as scribe since you’d taken the position, and the King would not make such a promise otherwise. Even so, you had become used to Mirkwood in many ways, and wondered how it would feel to be away from the kingdom, its King specifically.

  
As soon as the thought came into being, you felt ashamed of yourself. Of course, he was quite handsome and cared for his people greatly, but his love and grief for his wife was always present. And you were a scribe for pity’s sake! You didn’t have time for these thoughts and more importantly, the King did not. You shook yourself after breakfast and headed to the Hall of Records to continue writing the events of the meeting that had taken place yesterday. Even with a perfect auditory memory, everything is always best when fresh.

  
Just as your hands grabbed the door handles, you heard your name called from further down the passage. Surprised anyone would need you this early, it was still before sunrise after all, you turned to see Tauriel quickly walking towards you.

  
“Y/n, I am sorry to interrupt you but the King has requested your presence in the throne room immediately.” You nodded and began to walk alongside her in the direction she had come from.

  
“Has something happened?” You asked. The look on her face didn’t reveal much to you before she spoke. Though she considered you a friend now, she was always cautious with her choice of words. She never wanted to give too much away or say the wrong word as it wasn’t something you could exactly forget.

  
“Someone was caught in the woods a short while ago. We saved him from a group of spiders but we are not sure of his motives just yet.”

  
“It is very early. I suppose it stands to reason as to why I am needed. Do you know who he is? You did say ‘he’ so I must assume it is a person in question, not just some ork,” you paused briefly as you considered your own thoughts, “Plus, the Guard would kill any orks in the land. Or let the spiders have them. But also kill the spiders there. Or—” She raised her eyebrow at you and you lowered your head.

  
“I apologize. I’m talking too much again, aren’t I?” You meekly said. Tauriel laughed gently and lay a hand on your shoulder.

  
“I am one of the few you allow yourself to speak so much around. I consider it an honor.” You smiled softly in return. Many of the elves were too afraid to talk to you, save for a greeting or relaying a message. Recalling every exact word was a curse in some ways like that. It caused you to be a bit lonely some days, with so few to converse or share your time with. It also tended to make you overcompensate your end of any conversations you had when they did happen. Which was a bit embarrassing. Luckily, Tauriel did not mind. The times where it was worst was when you had nearly gushed your thoughts to the King after meetings when he would ask a simple question that should have needed a simple answer. He never discouraged your ramblings, though you were quick to catch yourself and apologize immensely. They were not moments you enjoyed thinking of.

  
When the two of you reached the throne room, Tauriel left your side to stand behind the Prince, Legolas. You bowed before the King and he waved his hand to signal you to go closer to the elf in shackles. The only tricky part about your talent was that you did need to actually HEAR what was being said, so often you had to be quite close to people. You moved about a yard away from him as the King began his questioning.

  
As it turned out, the elf before you was none other than the previous scribe. He stayed on his knees, head bent, answer most questions with one or two word answers. His hair was a tangle auburn mess and the state of his clothing was not much different. You wondered how he had lived, and where, for the past two centuries. His voice was very soft and it did not seem like he had spoken much for a long time. You often had to repeat his answers to the King and the rest of the room.

  
“Why did you leave your position? And why did you desert the kingdom?” The king asked. The elf, whose named you had discovered was Haldel, froze. You heard no answer from him and glanced to the King. “Speak! Do so and I may lessen your punishment.” He demanded again.

  
“—killed the—” Haldel whispered shakily. You took a breath, unsure of whether he was dangerous or not, and took a few steps toward him to hear better.

  
“What was that?” You asked as gently as you could. Even if he was dangerous, he was beaten and broken. It was difficult to not treat him with kindness.

  
“—killed the Queen.” You cocked your head to the side. Even before you came to Mirkwood, it was well known the Queen had died. But everyone, yourself included, understood that she had died of sickness, not murder. You heart began to race as you now leaned to his level, unaware that Tauriel and the Prince had moved much closer to you and Haldel as well. You were even less aware that the King himself has risen from his throne.

  
“Say that once more to me, please.” You could not recall an instance where you had demanded anything of anyone but you were afraid. Not at all of him, but of what ever he was about to say. There was something ominous about the whole thing. A huge part of you did not want to know what he was about to say. At the same time, you needed to know. As soon as the words came from your mouth, the spell that kept him broken and tiny snapped. Haldel’s head bolted up like lightning. He grabbed your left arm and drew you into him as much as he could. You had no time to react as his voice whispered hotly in your ear, “King Thranduil killed the Queen, his wife!”

Tauriel and Legolas snatched Haldel off of you as you stumbled and fell backwords. You wanted to vomit. This was a lie. This could not be possible!

“You lie!” Your voice hadn’t gone as high as it did in a long time. 

“No! It is the truth!” He shouted back, terror on his face.

“What did he say?” You barely heard the King speak to you, your mind reeling.

“Then why did you come back?!” The confusion and chaos was evident to all in the room, the posture of the guards were rigid. Legolas signaled for Tauriel to take you away as he held the elf harder. He didn’t need to, Haldel had gone near limp in his arms.

“Y/n, tell me what he said immediately!” The King had never raised his voice at you, but as you started to turn to him, words failing you, Haldel responded.

“I could not live knowing no one else knew! I loved her,” he began sobbing, “the kingdom loved her…” he trailed off. Your breathing was rushed, it was too much for you. The sheer idea of, and the possibility, however low of being the truth was too much. You mind felt like a haze as you watched the guards take him away. A hand grasped your wrist and when you saw the beautiful face of the King, your mind broke. You tried to snatch your hand away but the sudden exhaustion of your body won. You didn’t hear your name as you collapsed in Tauriel’s arms.


	2. Healer's Room

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reader wakes up after the events of the Throne room, only to find she is missing something vital.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! Sorry it's taken so long, even though I'm in quarantine, I'm not having a ton of motivation to do or write much. But here's the next chapter, it's short but sets up for the rest of the story!

As you drifted back to consciousness, you detected the scent of barley stew. Then a warm hand on your own and two voices speaking in hushed tones. As you mumbled to signal you were awake, the voices stopped and the hand tightened. 

You opened your eyes, vaguely seeing someone leave the room and another enter. On your hand, you saw Tauriel, looking at you with a very worried expression. Standing on her side was the Prince. His expression mirrored your own but held a sense of urgency. The elf who had come in was a healer, the eldest of them. Kaleil? You couldn’t recall her name. Odd.

“Y/n, how do you feel?” It was Tauriel who had spoken. You knew the Prince was letting her question you, probably because it would let you be more comfortable. You furrowed your brow. 

“Exhausted. I feel like my mind and body have not rested well in a week.” As you spoke, the healer began to check over you silently. The shared glance between your friend and the Prince was odd. Before you could ask, Tauriel spoke again.

“There is no easy way to say this but…you have been unconscious for three days.” Her statement made you bolt upright out of shock. Immediately, your free hand grabbed your head as pain radiated through it. The healer and Tauriel both urged you to lay back down. Once you did, the healer began to leave the room to get your soup and you stared blankly at the ceiling.

“Tauriel.”

“Yes?” You took in a deep breath.

“What was her name?” The question hung in the air for too long.

“Whose name?” You felt tears begin to prick at your eyes.

“The healer who just left the room.” Tauriel’s hand grasped your ever so slightly harder.

“Lallath.” Your breath caught in your lungs and you finally allowed yourself to cry. The smile you gave to Tauriel was the most out of place and ironic one you’d ever had. Her worried expression deepened.

“I could not… I could not remember!” You choked out. Before the next tear fell, she threw herself over you. The overwhelming compassion brought out all the emotions in an even bigger tidal wave. She held you tightly as you sobbed until your eyes stung. What good were you now? What if you never regained your ability? What if the King sent you away? You froze. The King? You drew back from your friend and looked to the Prince who had been politely averting his eyes.

“I need an audience with King Thranduil.”

“Eat first and rest more. I will see to it that my father visits you, as soon as he is able.” He made his way to the doors but stopped just before exiting.

“If you would like, I can have a message sent to Lady Galadriel to inform her of the situation?” His gesture moved you, he had never really shown you much emotion save for respect. You realized you need to respond.

“Yes! Please. I would…Greatly appreciate that.” You had blurted out your reply, recognized it, and curled up to hide your face. “Thank you, my Prince. It is very kind.” Your voice, while muffled in the blanket, was heard.

“You may call me Legolas. Formalities have never been a favorite of mine. Especially because you are close to Tauriel. I hope you recover quickly, Y/n.” He bowed his head, ever so slightly and left the room.

Once the door shut, you let the blanket fall from your face and smirked at Tauriel. “He is nicer than I previously believed. And now that I think about it, he never really leaves your side, does he?” Her jaw dropped at your insinuation. 

“He is my Prince. And friend. Nothing more.” She pointedly said. “Besides, our relationship is not important right now.” She gestured towards the door and the healer, Lallath, who had brought your barley soup. They both helped put pillows behind you so you could eat easily. As you ate, you remembered something important.

“What happened to that elf?” Your attempt at casually bringing up the subject wasn’t very good at all.

“He was taken to a cell, to remain until his motives are clear.”

“For leaving and suddenly returning? He said why. I remember that much at least. Or am I wrong?”

“Do you remember exactly what he said?” You shook your head.

“No but why would that matter? He screamed it so it is not as if no one else heard it.” She sighed and patted your hand. 

“What he said may have seemed like a scream to you but no one else heard his words.” You stared at her again, trying to remember what had happened. Hadn’t he screamed? Were you wrong, again? You could feel your face scrunching up in thought, in confusion. You were so sure he had screamed. Even though you could not recall his words, you were sure he had at least said his reasoning loudly? But as you looked to Tauriel again, you knew you were mistaken.

“So, if he did not scream, was I the only one to hear what he said?” You were so nervous, you had begun to shiver. Even after crying your heart out moments ago, you felt on the verge of tears again. She confirmed your suspicions by nodding. Frustration built quickly inside of you and you lashed out by smacking the remaining soup onto the floor. 

“What good am I?” You quietly asked yourself.

“What?” Tauriel was still being so gentle and though it had helped you at first, all it was doing now was upsetting you.

“What good am I?!” You shouted at her, “I came here because of my ability to remember everything said aloud and I cannot recall what he said, I cannot recall that he only spoke to me, and I could not even recall the Healer’s name! I must have learnt her name within the first five years of coming here and forgot it! What good am I, if my one reason for being here is nonexistent?! What if he never speaks to anyone again about why he left and came back? What if this was our only chance to find out and I ruined that because I no longer have my talent?! And what if I never regain my ability?” Tauriel’s mouth was wide with shock from your outburst and still you were not done. The dam had burst, and everything was coming out whether you wanted that or not. “What if the King is upset at me for this? Or worse, what if he decides to send me away because of this?” You clutched your head, the ache was coming back. “What will the King think of me that I no longer have a purpose? And what if he thinks that I am lying? And that I simply do not want to tell anyone the reasoning for that Elf’s leave? Will he no longer have as friendly relations to my Lady Galadriel for this? What if I have ruined everything?!” A flash ran across your vision and you felt as if you would vomit. The pain in your head was becoming too much and you wanted to hit rip into your skull. You began gasping, your breathing was erratic.

You weren’t able to see or hear Tauriel call for Lallath, but within moments she was by your side and trying to get you to calm down. Everything was spinning and you just wanted this pain to end. You curled into your self in the bed and felt yourself losing consciousness. Before you lost yourself, your eyes caught on something silver that had glistened when it entered the room. The King.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope y'all liked it! (Also sorry the reader has passed out at the end of another chapter but I felt it necessary given all the stress she's under)

**Author's Note:**

> Lmao yikes right? Let me know what y'all think!


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